In machine grinding operations, it is necessary to dress the face of the grinding wheel to assure the proper shape of the part to be ground (the workpiece) and to prepare or restore the surface of the grinding wheel to optimize its cutting ability and to insure that the quality of the finish imparted to a workpiece is high.
Conventionally, grinding wheels are dressed with a variety of tools, such as steel cutters, abrasive wheels, or techniques such as crush dressing are used. One means for dressing wheels in the past comprises using a rigid stick of abrasive material bonded in a hard matrix. These depend on the mechanical strength and hardness of the matrix and require continuous, forced application to break the conventional bonding material back away from the diamond, cubic boron nitride, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide or other materials used as the abrading materials in the wheels. See, for example, Abrams, U.S. Pat. No. 3,508,533.
Conventional sticks must be used with considerable force and this leads to economic losses caused by breakage and possible injury to the operator. Moreover, the force necessary with conventional sticks precludes their use in dressing form wheels, where force destroys the form.
One technique which avoids the need for rigid sticks is shown in Giardini et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,167,893 who used a high speed fluid jet ejected against the moving grinding wheel surface. This requires a multiplicity of pumps and apparatus of a very specialized design. Another technique which avoids the need for rigid sticks is shown in Kuris et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,123,951 who applied an ultrasonically cavitated fluid to the moving surface of the grinding wheel. This too required non-conventional apparatus which is generally too expensive for routine manufacturing use.
In general, also, the prior art methods require rather prolonged periods of time for dressing to be completed.
A new method has now been discovered which avoids all of the above-mentioned disadvantages. In addition, the method is simple enough for even experienced operators to use it; the wheels, especially larger wheels of 10 inch and greater diameter, are left free cutting and open around the entire periphery; the dressing operation can be conducted in a "hands off" fashion for safety of the operator and to reduce operator error; the procedure is adaptable to a variety of machine types, wheel and bond designs, grinding modes; the technique is capable of providing both trueing and dressing in a single operation; and much more rapid dressing is routinely achieved.